His words cut for some bizarre reason, no matter how accurate they were. When he tried to take hold of me again, I jerked away again.
His expression hardened. "We need to get you home."
"Why? So I can be a prisoner for the rest of my life? Is this what it"s going to be like forever?"
"Until we figure out who wants to harm you, yes. You"ll just have to deal with that."
"What are you talking about? You killed that reporter guy who tried to kidnap me."
"And he was sent by someone else. Someone smart enough to make your death look like an accident."
"What do you mean? What accident?"
"Think about it, Lorelei. You"re the prophet. The one who"s supposed to save the world, literally, yet you"re hit by a truck and suddenly slated to die? Does that sound wrong to you?"
I stepped back, growing wary. "What are you saying?"
"I"m saying that your near-death experience was planned. It had to be. Someone wanted to stop the prophecy from coming true. Why else would you have been scheduled to die before you could fulfill it? A centuries-old prophecy?"
I pulled my bottom lip through my teeth. "Someone tried to kill me? On purpose?"
"I believe so. And maybe that"s why I couldn"t take you when I was supposed to. Maybe I knew. Somewhere deep inside, I knew it was wrong."
"I thought- I thought you couldn"t take me, because-" I stopped before I embarra.s.sed myself even further. Admitting that I thought he couldn"t take me because he had feelings for me, because he"d fallen madly in love with me. would probably have him in st.i.tches.
I tried to walk past him, but he blocked me and stepped closer. He didn"t try to grab me again. With arms at his sides, he watched me through his glittering gaze. His dark irises didn"t reflect the light from the campfire so much as absorb it, turn it into something magical, something mesmerizing.
As though fighting with himself, he bit down, locked gazes with mine, then stepped even closer. He lifted a finger and ran it over my mouth, along my jaw. "Your grandparents were right, Lorelei."
The word "grandparents" brought me skyrocketing back to reality. I nodded and swallowed down the bitter taste in my mouth, the same one I got every time he mentioned them. "Right. When they told you to stay away from me."
"They didn"t say that. Not really. They just- They reminded me of the truth."
"Of course. And what truth would that be?"
His gaze didn"t waver as he said, "That I am not worthy of you."
If the world had fallen out from under me, I would have been less surprised.
"That I have no right to pursue you. I have nothing to offer," he continued. "No future here on Earth."
I was fairly certain my jaw was hanging open at that point.
"That you are destined to do great things. That you were prophesied about over four centuries ago." He closed his eyes. "And I am nothing more than an errand boy."
Maybe it was just the alcohol, but everything faded away except Jared. His startlingly beautiful face. His wide, solid build.
Then his gaze narrowed and darted past me. He scanned the area, suspicion furrowing his brows. "Who invited you to this party?"
I glanced down, embarra.s.sed, and tried not to fall sideways with the movement. "Tabitha."
He wrapped a hand around my upper arm, still examining the black beyond. "And where is Tabitha now?"
"Over there with the in crowd, I suppose." I frowned at him. "Why?"
Jared eased me away from him. "Get her home."
"What?" I asked, but my question was answered when Cameron stepped from the shadows, his footsteps as quiet as Jared"s. How was that even possible? I totally wanted that superpower.
"Really?" Cameron asked as he looked me up and down, his expression full of mirth. "You thought you could sneak away from us by using the front door?"
"Shut up."
"Stealthy. You"re like a ninja." He chuckled.
I crossed my arms over my chest, but before I could snip at him again, he stepped in front of me, blocking my view of Jared. When I tried to look around him into the forest, he blocked me again. So I tiptoed, trying to peek over his shoulder. Though I couldn"t quite manage it, I did get a good look at his shoulder blade. This was ridiculous.
"What?" I grabbed his arms and finally peered around him. "What are you guys looking at?"
Cameron reached back and took hold of my wrist, then stepped closer to Jared. "This isn"t my fight, Reaper. She"s my only concern."
He turned back to him. "And why do you think they"re here?"
"Who?" I asked, but was ignored again.
They did things like that. Spoke. Argued. Ignored.
And enough was enough. I wrenched my wrist from Cameron"s grasp and stepped around him. "No more cryptic c.r.a.p. I mean it. What is going on? What"s out there?"
"A presence," Cameron said, clenching his hands, on full alert.
"I thought you said there wasn"t a presence. That the rats left the sinking ship."
Jared spoke then. "The normal spiritual elements are gone. This is something else. Something that shouldn"t be here."
Well, that couldn"t be good. But if I were as honest with myself as Brooke was, I would admit that I"d felt it too. Something skewed. Something not quite right. Then again, I did just drink strawberry vodka.
"There"s a balance," Jared said, turning back to us, "between the physical world and the spiritual one. The light and the darkness. And when that balance is thrown off, when the scales have been tipped to one side or the other, there is chaos. Emotions bubble. Tempers flare. Decades" worth of animosity and resentment surface, and there is a rise in violent crimes. Those who lean toward violence anyway are naturally affected more. And those who don"t are seen as weak."
"Humans are swayed by more than just stress and reality TV," Cameron said. "The spiritual world is very much a part of their makeup, whether they acknowledge it or not."
I thought about how my grandparents were suddenly fighting with members of the Order. Were they being affected as well?
"And until we can figure out what is throwing the world off balance," Cameron continued, taking hold of my arm as though afraid I would rabbit, "we need to keep you safe."
"Get her home," Jared said again. "There aren"t many ent.i.ties that can throw the world into turmoil." He turned back to us, his mouth slanting into a menacing grin. "This shouldn"t take long."
In an instant, the s.p.a.ce he"d occupied was empty. I barely heard him running through the trees as Cameron helped-aka dragged-me back to his truck.
I looked up at him, trying not to trip. "What did you mean, it"s not your fight? Why is it Jared"s?"
He lifted a shoulder. "Sounded good at the time." He stuffed me into his truck none too gently, then went around to his door.
"How did you guys find me?"
"Your aura isn"t exactly subtle," he said as his truck roared to life.
"My aura?"
He cracked a grin. "It"s like a freaking bonfire, way brighter than that paltry excuse for a campfire you guys started."
"I had nothing to do with that," I said, defensive, "you know, if the forest burns down because of it."
I so very much wished I could know more. Could see more. In desperation, I steeled myself for anything, then reached over and grabbed his wrist.
He frowned at me. "I"m nephilim, shortstop. You can"t get anything off me unless I want you to. Or I"m so stunned, I can"t think straight. Sorry, but you just don"t do that to me."
I thought about being offended but couldn"t quite manage it.
He pulled around to the back of the house, and I cringed. His truck wasn"t exactly quiet. I jumped down after he turned it off and headed inside, only to be brought up short.
"In the bizarre instance that my grandparents didn"t hear that beast of yours, we can"t go up the fire escape. They"ll hear."
"Maybe they should," he said, walking up behind me. He eyed me as though I were a naughty schoolgirl who deserved to be punished.
"Oh, please." I crossed my arms over my chest. "Like you"ve never drunk a beer."
With a shrug, he hauled me over his shoulder. I squeaked in protest.
"I"ve had a few beers. They don"t do anything for me."
"This is so uncomfortable," I said as he climbed the fire escape as quiet as a church mouse. "I have got to learn how you guys do that."
"Do what?"
"And what do you mean, they don"t do anything for you? You don"t like the way they make you feel?" I wasn"t going to admit it, but I was right there with him. Tipsy, buzzed, drunk-whatever the colloquialism, it sucked. If the world would quit spinning, I would get off and wait for the next one to come by.
He slid open the window and sat me on the sill. "No, I mean they do nothing for me. I don"t feel any different. I don"t think I can get inebriated like you."
Brooke"s voice burst into the quiet like a freight train barreling through town at midnight. "You"re inebriated?" she screeched.
I scrambled inside, stumbling over a chair leg, and slammed my hand over her mouth. A single lamp lit the room, casting more shadows than light, but I could see the shock in her huge eyes.
She mumbled through my hand. "You"ve been drinking?"
"Sh-h-h."
"Alcohol?"
Shushing her with an index finger across my lips, I said, "Only a little."
She broke free of my grip. "Lorelei Elizabeth McAlister."
Great. Time to be judged again. "What are you doing here anyway?" I peeled off my jacket as Cameron climbed in and closed the window against the crisp night air.
"Cameron called me."
I glared at the traitor before sinking onto my bed. Completely unaffected, he turned to stare into the darkness.
Brooke sat beside me. "Why would you go to that party, Lor? What could you possibly have had to gain?"
"I don"t know." Leaning against the headboard, I clutched a pillow to my chest. How could I tell her that I just wanted to know what it felt like to be normal? That I just wanted to belong? And that I was super curious why Tabitha had invited me in the first place.
I couldn"t miss the hurt that flashed across her face before she reined it in. "Did you think that going to a party without me would earn you brownie points with the cool kids?"
"What? No. Why would you even say that?"
"Why would you even go to that moronic party? Especially with everything that"s going on?"
"No," I said, suddenly annoyed. "In lieu of everything that"s going on. Don"t you just want to forget it? To pretend that there"s nothing wrong with us?"
She leaned back, clearly offended. "Wrong with us?"
"Oh, my G.o.d, Brooke, look at us. The only normal one in our bunch is Glitch, and that"s debatable on his best day. We have an angelic being, a nephilim, a girl who was possessed and has a cracked aura to prove it-"
"Don"t dis my crack."
"And then there"s me. Whoopty-freaking-do. Oh, yes, the world will surely be saved now. And by whom? By us. The misfits of Torrance County. We are supposed to stop a war between good and evil? When we can barely make it to school on time, we are destined to safeguard humanity?"
She put a hand on my knee, her face knowing. Sympathetic. "You mean you."
I stilled. Questioned her with my eyes.
"You mean you are supposed to stop a war."
I swallowed hard with the reminder. "I just don"t want it anymore. I don"t want the prophecy, the visions, any of it."
"But why?" She grew animated, her movements exaggerated. "Your visions were so cool. You could"ve changed people"s lives with them, Lor. You could"ve helped people."
I wanted to scoff at her. To rant and rave about how wrong she was.
She bit her bottom lip in thought, and I could see the wheels spinning. "We just need to practice more. That"s it. I"m sure you"ll get them back."
My next statement was little more than a whisper, but I couldn"t keep going on like this. It wasn"t fair to her. To either of us. Gathering my courage, I said, "I never lost them."
"What?" she said, sobering.
I shifted away from her. Plucked at the pillow. "The visions. I never lost them." I looked up to gauge her reaction. "In fact, they"re so strong, so fierce, I can"t control them. They come at me like missiles. They punch me in the gut. They tear through my heart. They make me sick. Every single one."